Hey, Wi-Fi fans, let's go surfin' now

Much-heralded Minneapolis network lives up to its billing

The Internet everywhere: It's the dream of Web power users who
need to be online all the time for work, not to mention Net
addicts who get the shakes if they can't check e-mail and Twitter
every few minutes.

I'm in the latter category. So I'm pumped about a local Wi-Fi
network that covers an entire city, not just a cafe or hotel,
with speeds that often surpass that of cellular data networks.
And that's even if the Wi-Fi network doesn't blanket my city
 St. Paul  but Minneapolis.

I was curious how well that network, sponsored by the city of
Minneapolis and nearing completion by private firm US Internet,
would work for me. So I hopped on a bus Thursday and spent most
of a workday in downtown Minneapolis. My goal: Use the wireless
service nonstop, on a laptop when stationary and with a
Wi-Fi-enabled handheld device when walking around.

The much-ballyhooed Minneapolis network has been cited as one
of the few municipal Wi-Fi services in the United States that is
worth a heck. Would it live up to its billing in my 
admittedly limited  testing?

I immediately ran into a few minor problems. My devices
detected the US Internet network (in the list of available
networks, it appears as "USI Wireless"). But I had
trouble pulling up an initial "splash" screen to buy
time on the network and log in. This mystified the techies at US
Internet, but it resolved itself, and I was able to type in my
registration info.

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US Internet gives users the option to subscribe for $20 to $36
a month, with Internet-download speeds of 1 to 6 megabits per
second (or, in technical terms, "awesome" to
"freakin' awesome"), all with 1-megabit uploads. This
is suitable for those who live in Minneapolis and will use the
network nonstop, perhaps as their main way to get online at home,
or at work with special signal-amplification equipment.

But I was more in the role of a business traveler or an east
metro resident visiting the west metro and needing ample,
omnipresent bandwidth while on the move. About a quarter of US
Internet's wireless-network clientele fit this road-warrior
profile. For such people, US Internet has a $20-a-month
"roaming" account, or a $10 option that provides 24
hours of access. I signed up for the latter.

I was in! On my laptop, the wireless network worked
dependably.

Over lunch at a Thai restaurant on Washington Avenue, I was
able to fire off e-mails to my editors, "tweet" on the
Twitter microblogging service and make Internet-based voice calls
via the Skype service. A bit later, while sipping something dark
and potent at a coffee shop, I carried on instant-messaging
exchanges with a few folks, checked e-mail on Google Gmail and
(yes, I admit it) hopped back on Twitter.

US Internet says the network will work best with laptops that
use a plug-in card and attached antenna for optimal communication
with its Wi-Fi radios installed all over town. My card- and
antenna-less Apple MacBook Air did fine, though I never hit more
than about half the maximum advertised speed of 1 megabit per
second for my service level. It helps to be sitting by a window
when on a laptop indoors.

I wasn't as lucky with my pocket device, an iPod Touch. This
is the phone-less counterpart to Apple's iPhone, and therefore
reliant on Wi-Fi for Web browsing and e-mail exchanges. Yet US
Internet warned me that such devices might cause me sporadic
trouble. That was certainly the case indoors.

Outdoors, my odds of getting a signal improved, and I could
pull up my e-mail and the Web. This was never foolproof, but I
stumbled on spots along Washington Avenue and Nicollet Mall where
the network worked well. One such spot was beside the Mary Tyler
Moore statue. I guess her sunny disposition makes for better
bandwidth, good enough to "stream" a trailer of coming
movie "WALL-E" over the Internet.

My odyssey ended at the Peavey Plaza park, where I perched on
a concrete bench and began writing this piece. I was confident
enough in US Internet's wireless network at that point to use a
Web-based word processor. Wi-Fi offers little warmth, however, so
I ducked into an adjoining cafe after a while to finish this in
heated comfort. (Then I watched more streaming trailers and
downloaded a Weezer track via Apple's iTunes Store.)

The cafe has its own, free Wi-Fi network, though. So does the
Thai place, the other coffee shop I visited, along with another
restaurant I dropped into for a bathroom break. This raises an
important issue for those considering whether to use the US
Internet network: Could you get by with free, fast and dependable
Wi-Fi hotspots, available in abundance and conveniently listed in
online directories? Heck, I could.

But some people really do need Internet everywhere. If they're
in Minneapolis, they won't think twice about signing up for US
Internet wireless service.

Julio Ojeda-Zapata can be reached at jojeda@pioneerpress.com
or 651-228-5467.

WHAT'S 'WI-FI' ALL ABOUT?

Wi-Fi is the name for the popular wireless
technology used for Internet access and computer
networking. It's fast, and getting faster, but remains
somewhat limited in range.

Its most commonly used for home
networks and public "hotspots" (such as coffee
shops) where laptops are near the main access point or
node  thats the Wi-Fi radio transmitter.

Wi-Fi started out as an indoor technology,
but enthusiasts found they could create networks that
covered neighborhoods by networking together lots of
overlapping access points.

Now cities are trying to create municipal
Wi-Fi networks to provide employees with mobile Internet
access and bring cheaper broadband to people who cannot
afford or get access to wired service.